Europeans urge US to await UN report on Syria

French Foreign Affairs Minister Laurent Fabius, center shakes hands with US Secretary of State John Kerry at the ministry in Paris, on Saturday Sept.7, 2013. Kerry traveled to Europe to court international support for a possible strike on the Syrian regime for its alleged use of chemical weapons while making calls back home to lobby Congress where the action faces an uphill battle.(AP Photo/Lionel Bonaventure/Pool)
— AP

French Foreign Affairs Minister Laurent Fabius, center shakes hands with US Secretary of State John Kerry at the ministry in Paris, on Saturday Sept.7, 2013. Kerry traveled to Europe to court international support for a possible strike on the Syrian regime for its alleged use of chemical weapons while making calls back home to lobby Congress where the action faces an uphill battle.(AP Photo/Lionel Bonaventure/Pool)
/ AP

The report is expected later this month. Some European officials are asking the U.N. to speed up the investigation or issue an interim report.

France, which firmly backs the Syrian rebels and has strategic and historic interest in the region, had been ready to act last week but held off when President Barack Obama declared last weekend that he would seek the backing of Congress first.

Hollande's announcement appeared to catch Fabius off guard.

Earlier Friday, Fabius told EU foreign ministers in Vilnius that there was no need to wait for the U.N. report because it would simply confirm what was already known - that the chemical weapons attack had occurred - but would not say who was responsible.

On Mideast peace negotiations, Kerry urged his EU counterparts to consider delaying putting in place a funding ban on Israeli institutions operating in occupied territories.

Ashton said the EU would send a team to Israel on Monday to make sure the implementation of the ban is done "very sensitively."

"We, of course, want to continue to have a strong relationship with Israel," she said.

The EU's decision on the ban, announced in July, marked a new international show of displeasure with Israeli settlements built on lands captured in the 1967 Mideast war.

The Palestinians claim some of those territories - the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem - for their hoped-for state.

The EU ban applies to grants, prizes and financial instruments and that the new funding guidelines go into effect in 2014. The EU issues dozens of grants, totaling millions of euros, to Israeli universities, companies and researchers every year.

From Paris, Kerry was scheduled to hold talks in London with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and British Foreign Secretary William Hague before returning to Washington.